seminal and ever impressive chiptune label 8bitpeoples are right on the cusp of their 100th album release. While we are all waiting to see what they have in store for us, we should take notice that their 99th release is definitely no slouch. Starscream makes his 8bitpeoples debut with the amazing Future, and it Doesn't Work EP. The album's concept is stated as the following.

"In the not so distant future awaits the election of the first third party candidate to the White House- they will hail from the Space Party, a political coalition founded by astrophysicists, former democrats and ex-NASA employees. In their 8bitpeoples debut EP, "Future, and It Doesn't Work", Starscream tell a tale of victory, science, and potentially catastrophic foreign policy."

The album definitely has an amazing space like quality to it akin to recent comptroller release. With the kick off track (and my personal favorite on the EP) Rise of Space, you can imagine the countdown to rocketing into orbit, which leads into the somber yet victorious Space Party Anthem. The third track, Gravity in Terms of Space-Time, sounds like the type of bold song you would see along with footage of the great accomplishments of the space party in this future scenario. From here we are taken to the more ominous sounds of Kepler's Star Catalog, which sounds like the background to some tough space decision making, and maybe even some shady backroom space deals.

This song coupled with Gravity bring the political edge of the album to the forefront by seemingly giving an audio account of both the good and bad of politics, whether in space or on earth. The final song of this five song EP is the title track, Future, and it Doesn't Work, which brings the album down on a serious but wise ending. The song starts with slow sad notes, but slowly builds to something more upbeat and nostalgic. This finally breaks into full rough and tumble breaks and crashes. The song reaches a spacey crescendo which breaks down again and leads into a tune that brings this ending song into what sounds like a new beginning. This picks up faster and faster as if to indicate that with one chapter of history closed we begin a new one. This is until it falls apart in a mess of static. And with that the album is brought to a close.

I have nothing but high praise for this album. All the songs definitely stand out and invoke both the space and political themes that Starscream seemed to be aiming for. Also should be noted that this album, along with all the other 8bp releases is now available to download in .ZIP files! Wooh! No more download managers for me!